This invention relates to apparatus for unloading cassettes of the type that contain X-ray film.
One type of cassette commonly used to hold a large sheet of X-ray film for recording a chest X-ray image or the like, includes a pair of walls pivotally connected at one end and latchable at the opposite end, which hold a film sheet between them. Such cassettes permit an undeveloped film sheet to be handled in a daylight environment, as when bringing the film to a chest X-ray unit for exposure or when carrying the exposed film to a processor.
Although the use of a cassette has facilitated movement of the undeveloped film, it has usually been necessary to bring the cassette to a darkroom for removal of the film and placement of it in a processing machine which develops it. It would be possible to devise complex unloader mechanisms for opening the cassette and transferring the film to a processor while an operator of the mechanism stands in a daylight environment. However, in order for a film unloader to gain wide acceptance, it is necessary that it be relatively simple, to minimize the cost and maximize the reliability of the device. It would also be desirable if any such unloader could accept cassettes of a plurality of different sizes without requiring it to have a substantially increased size or complexity.